Online incompetence

Published: Friday, November 8, 2013 at 08:00 AM.

Cheer up, President Obama. You’re not the only one with an embarrassingly inept rollout of a highly touted , costly new website.

Just because the big boys in Washington can’t get their 1’s and 0’s in order does not excuse Florida’s technological incompetence.

On Oct. 15, the state’s Department of Economic Opportunity unveiled its $63 million “Connect” website for processing unemployment claims. It replaced a 30-year-old system that the 230,000 Floridians who are currently unemployed used to claim their weekly benefits, monitor accounts and request information, and it had been in the works since 2009.

But like the federal Healthcare.gov site, Florida’s Connect (connect.myflorida.com) frustrated users by making it difficult or impossible to log in and access. The DEO reportedly received 400,000 calls from frustrated users, and many of them couldn’t get through because there weren’t enough staffers to answer the phones.

DEO Director Jesse Panuccio acknowledged there were “minor glitches” in the system. Deloitte Consulting, the New York-based contractor who built the website, said it should take about two months to get everything fixed.

Where have we heard all that before?

Like the disastrous debut of the Obamacare website, Connect was years in the making and a key function of a government policy — in Florida’s case, legislation was passed in 2011 requiring all unemployment claimants to register online. Furthermore, there were indications before the launch that the website was flawed. Deloitte reportedly had problems with technology contracts in other states, it delivered Connect 10 months late and Florida officials expressed concern before the site went active.

Cheer up, President Obama. You’re not the only one with an embarrassingly inept rollout of a highly touted , costly new website.

Just because the big boys in Washington can’t get their 1’s and 0’s in order does not excuse Florida’s technological incompetence.

On Oct. 15, the state’s Department of Economic Opportunity unveiled its $63 million “Connect” website for processing unemployment claims. It replaced a 30-year-old system that the 230,000 Floridians who are currently unemployed used to claim their weekly benefits, monitor accounts and request information, and it had been in the works since 2009.

But like the federal Healthcare.gov site, Florida’s Connect (connect.myflorida.com) frustrated users by making it difficult or impossible to log in and access. The DEO reportedly received 400,000 calls from frustrated users, and many of them couldn’t get through because there weren’t enough staffers to answer the phones.

DEO Director Jesse Panuccio acknowledged there were “minor glitches” in the system. Deloitte Consulting, the New York-based contractor who built the website, said it should take about two months to get everything fixed.

Where have we heard all that before?

Like the disastrous debut of the Obamacare website, Connect was years in the making and a key function of a government policy — in Florida’s case, legislation was passed in 2011 requiring all unemployment claimants to register online. Furthermore, there were indications before the launch that the website was flawed. Deloitte reportedly had problems with technology contracts in other states, it delivered Connect 10 months late and Florida officials expressed concern before the site went active.

If a private company rolled out a new website as fouled up as Healthcare.gov or Connect, its sales would decline, its stock value would plummet and employees — particularly the managers who oversaw the debacle — would be fired. That’s why most would take the time to stress-test the product and ensure it was virtually glitch-free before it was made available to the public.

Government, though, lacks that kind of accountability. Kathleen Sebelius and Panuccio still have jobs. Citizens are given myriad excuses and pleas for patience, when it’s their money that is being wasted.

The Florida Legislature needs to investigate why Connect has had such a rocky start. And because the site was federally funded (because the U.S. Department of Labor oversees employment programs), U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has asked Washington to get involved. Labor already has asserted the state’s requirement for Internet-only registration violates federal law.

Washington’s and Florida’s struggles with technology that most Americans take for granted should undermine government’s grand claims to know best how to manage vast, complex, unwieldy systems. People should not trust turning over so much of their privacy and freedom to the gang that couldn’t shoot straight on something as straightforward as a website.

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